Suburban Baths

Suburban Baths Pompeii Reviews

First you have to book on line your free private visit at least one day prior to the venue on www.arethusa.net click on "Prenotazione" to start the booking procedure(free internet booking service).

The Suburban Baths(terme suburbane)are located Regio VII,against the city walls north of the Porta Marina(entry very close to the ticket-taker), were built around the end of the 1st century BC for the use of the Pompeians(not all had running water in their homes) but also sailors who wanted to take a bath,to converse,meet friends or were looking for...special services.

After entering the Baths through a long corridor,you are in the Apodyterium(dressing room),here the facility is not divided into men's and women's sector.

Each scene is located above a numbered box thought to be lockers used by the bathers to put their clothes.

There is a lively debate about the purpose of these paintings:advertisements for special services offered on the upper floor of the Baths,decorative purpose or used to label lockers, as reminders of where people had left their clothes,the most widely accepted theory?

Then the changing room leads to the Tepidarium(lukewarm room) with its vault ceiling and to the hot room(Calidarium) finally.